16<\/strong>. The wording of this verse is obscure in the Heb., but the R.V. gives the general sense. The rendering ‘to commit<\/em> trespass’ is obtained by adopting a probable emendation, , for the late and difficult word ‘to deliver’ (see Num 31:5<\/em><\/span>).<\/p>\n through the counsel of Balaam<\/em> ] Perhaps better in the matter<\/strong> of Balaam<\/em>. This is a reference to an incident which is now lost, but which probably preceded Num 25:6<\/span> (see note there).<\/p>\n with regard to<\/strong> the matter of Peor<\/em> ] The writer refers in this clause to the quite distinct narrative in Num 25:1-5<\/span>. In Rev 2:14<\/span> reference is made to the enticement by Balaam both to idolatry and to immorality.<\/p>\n Caused … to commit trespass – <\/B>More literally, became to the children of Israel for a cause (or, incitement) of treachery to the Lord.<\/P><\/p>\n Num 31:16<\/span><\/p>\n The counsel of Balaam.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n The counsel of Balaam<\/strong><\/p>\n It would seem, then, that this people that was to dwell alone and not be reckoned among the nations had not dwelt alone; and that one man, at least, of the people in whom God had not beheld iniquity nor seen perverseness, had been guilty of the most flagrant iniquity and perverseness. For not only had he, an Israelitish prince, brought the daughter of a Midianitish prince unto his brethren–which was in itself an unlawful act–but he had done this openly and shamelessly, in the sight of Moses, and in the <\/strong>sight of all the congregation of Israel (Num 25:6<\/span>). But how came it to pass that these Moabites and Midianites, who, only yesterday as it were, displayed such relentless hostility to Israel, should, to-day, be upon such friendly terms with them? How was it that, whereas but yesterday–so to speak–the king of Moab sent princes of Moab and Midian to Balaam, the son of Beor to Pethor in Mesopotamia, entreating him to come and curse the Israelites–sparing nothing to secure this end–these hostile princes are now giving their daughters to the Israelites in the most intimate companionship? Surely there must be some treachery in this proceeding! And so it seemed there was. Balaam, after his repulse by Balak, had fled, not to his own land, but to Midian, the confederate of Moab; and, not daring to curse the people himself, had suggested to the Midianites a method of leading them into iniquity, as a means of bringing a curse on them from God. And this new scheme had propitiated Balak, who had been so fiercely enraged against Balaam, and who now consulted (Mic 6:5<\/span>) with Balaam; who counselled (Num 31:16<\/span>) this expedient of mischief. So the matter came out upon the death of Balaam, and so is it explained in my text.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>Balaam plainly committed this crime with his eyes open to the wrong be was doing. Out of his own mouth we may judge him. In a moment of prophetic inspiration he protested to Balak that his eyes were open; that he had heard the words of God, and knew the <\/strong>knowledge of the Most High. Balaams sin, then, was committed knowingly, consciously, wilfully. He was not overtaken in a fault. He set himself to do wickedly.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>And he was influenced to take this course by the meanest of motives. He loved the wages of unrighteousness.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>And if anything could have aggravated the meanness of the motive that influenced Balaam in betraying Israel, it was the baseness of the method he adopted to accomplish that design. God had revealed to him, in prophetic insight, the secret of Israels greatness and strength. And Balaam used the very inspiration which God gave him to injure, fatally, Gods own chosen people. And the cowardice of his procedure was in keeping with its baseness. He would not touch Israel himself. He dare not utter a word against them; but be could whisper suggestions of evil into the ears of others, that they might execute the diabolical design. (W. Roberts.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Balaams devilish policy<\/strong><\/p>\n This policy was fetched from the bottom of hell. It is not for lack of desire that I curse not Israel; thou dost not more wish their destruction, than I do thy wealth and honour; but so long as they hold firm with God, there is no sorcery against Jacob: withdraw God from them, and they shall fall alone, and curse themselves; draw them into sin, and thou shalt withdraw God from them. There is no sin more plausible than wantonness. One fornication shall draw in another, and both shall fetch the anger of God after them; their sight shall draw them to lust, their lust to folly, their folly to idolatry; and now God shall curse them for thee unasked. Where Balaam did speak well, there was never any prophet spake more divinely; where he spake ill, there was never any devil spake more desperately. Ill counsel seldom succeedeth not; good seed often falls out of the way, and roots not; but the tares never light amiss. This project of the wicked magician was too prosperous. (Bp. Hall<\/em>.)<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam<\/strong>,…. Who advised the Midianites to send their women into the camp of Israel, and allure them to uncleanness, and so draw them into idolatry, which counsel they followed and it succeeded; for, by this means, they were brought<\/p>\n to commit trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor<\/strong>; by worshipping Baalpeor, the god of the Moabites and Midianites; whereby they transgressed the commandment of God, which forbid them having and worshipping any other gods besides him, and is a sin highly offensive to him, being greatly derogatory to his honour and glory:<\/p>\n and there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord<\/strong>; for that sin; and in that plague died 24,000 persons, Nu 25:9<\/span>.<\/p>\n 16<\/strong>. <\/strong> Matter of Peor <\/strong> See Num 25:3<\/span>; Num 25:18<\/span>, notes.<\/p>\n Num 31:16<\/span><\/em><\/strong>. <\/strong>Through the counsel of Balaam<\/em><\/strong><\/strong> We have, in the course of the former chapters, spoken of this evil counsel. <\/em>As the Moabites and Midianites, strongly infected with the ideas of local and tutelary gods, conceived Jehovah to be only the tutelary God of the Jews; we may well account, from this persuasion, for their proceedings, and for their rather choosing to entice the Israelites to their idolatry, than to embrace with them the worship of Jehovah. <\/p>\n VIII<\/p>\n<\/p>\n BALAAM: HIS IMPORTANT PROPHECIES, HIS CHARACTER, AND HIS BIBLE HISTORY<\/p>\n Numbers 22-24; Num 31:8<\/span><\/strong> ; Num 31:16<\/span><\/strong> ; Deu 23:4-5<\/span><\/strong> ; Jos 13:22<\/span><\/strong> ; Jos 24:9-10<\/span><\/strong> ; Mic 6:5<\/span><\/strong> ; Neh 13:2<\/span><\/strong> ; Jud 1:2<\/span><\/strong> ; 2Pe 2:15<\/span><\/strong> ; Rev 2:14<\/span><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n These scriptures give you a clue to both Balaam’s history and character: Numbers 22-24; Num 31:8<\/span> , and especially Num 31:16<\/span> ; Deu 23:4-5<\/span> ; Jos 13:22<\/span> ; Jos 24:9-10<\/span> ; Mic 6:5<\/span> ; Neh 13:2<\/span> ; Jud 1:2<\/span> ; 2Pe 2:15<\/span> ; and, most important of all, Rev 2:14<\/span> . Anybody who attempts to discuss Balaam ought to be familiar with every one of these scriptures.<\/p>\n Who was Balaam? He was a descendant of Abraham, as much as the Israelites were. He was a Midianite and his home was near where the kinsmen of Abraham, Nahor and Laban, lived. They possessed from the days of Abraham a very considerable knowledge of the true God. He was not only a descendant of Abraham and possessed the knowledge of the true God through traditions handed down, as in the case of Job and Melchizedek, but he was a prophet of Jehovah. That is confirmed over and over again. Unfortunately he was also a soothsayer and a diviner, adding that himself to his prophetic office for the purpose of making money. People always approach soothsayers with fees.<\/p>\n His knowledge of the movements of the children of Israel could easily have been obtained and the book of Exodus expressly tells that that knowledge was diffused over the whole country. Such a poem as Jacob’s dying blessing on his children would circulate all over the Semitic tribes, and such an administration as that of Joseph would become known over all the whole world, such displays of power as the miracles in Egypt, the deliverance at the Red Sea and the giving of the law right contiguous to the territory of Balaam’s nation make it possible for him to learn all these mighty particulars. It is a great mistake to say that God held communication only with the descendants of Abraham. We see how he influenced people in Job’s time and how he influenced Melchizedek, and there is one remarkable declaration made in one of the prophets that I have not time to discuss, though I expect to preach a sermon on it some day, in which God claims that he not only brought Israel out of Egypt but the Philistines out of Caphtor and all peoples from the places they occupied (Amo 9:7<\/span> ). We are apt to get a very narrow view of God’s government of the human race when we attempt to confine it to the Jews only.<\/p>\n Next, we want to consider the sin of Balaam. First, it was from start to finish a sin against knowledge. He had great knowledge of Jehovah. It was a sin against revelation and a very vile sin in that it proceeded from his greed for money, loving the wages of unrighteousness. His sin reached its climax after he had failed to move Jehovah by divinations, and it was clear that Jehovah was determined to bless these people, when for a price paid in his hand be vilely suggested a means by which the people could be turned from God and brought to punishment. That was about as iniquitous a thing as the purchase of the ballots in the late prohibition election in Waco, for the wages of unrighteousness. His counsel was (Num 31:16<\/span> ) to seduce the people of Israel by bringing the Moabitish and Midianite evil women to tempt and get them through their lusts to attend idolatrous feasts.<\/p>\n In getting at the character of this man, we have fortunately some exceedingly valuable sermon literature. The greatest preachers of modern times have preached on Balaam, and in the cross lights of their sermons every young preacher ought to inform himself thoroughly on Balaam. The most famous one for quite a while was Bishop Butler’s sermon. When I was a boy, everybody read that sermon, and, as I recall it, the object was to show the self-deception which persuaded Balaam in every case that the sin he committed could be brought within the rules of conscience and revelation, so that he could say something at every point to show that he stood right, while all the time he was going wrong.<\/p>\n Then the great sermon by Cardinal Newman: “The dark shadow cast over a noble course by standing always on the ladder of advancement and by the suspense of a worldly ambition never satisfied.” He saw in Balaam one of the most remarkable men of the world, high up on the ladder and the way to the top perfectly open but shaded by the dark shadow of his sin. Then Dr. Arnold’s sermon on Balaam, as I recall, the substance being the strange combination of the purest form of religious belief with action immeasurably below it. Next the great sermon by Spurgeon with seven texts. He takes the words in the Bible, “I have sinned,” and Balaam is one of the seven men he discusses. Spurgeon preached Balaam as a double-minded man. He could see the right and yet his lower nature turned him constantly away from it, a struggle between the lower and higher nature. These four men were the greatest preachers in the world since Paul. I may modestly call attention to my own sermon on Balaam; that Balaam was not a double-minded man; that from the beginning this man had but one real mind, and that was greed and power, and he simply used the religious light as a stalking horse. No rebuff could stop him long. God might say, “You shall not go,” and he would say, “Lord, hear me again and let me go.” He might start and an angel would meet him and he might hear the rebuke of the dumb brute but he would still seek a way to bring about evil. I never saw a man with a mind more single than Balaam.<\/p>\n I want you to read about him in Keble’s “Christian Year.” Keble conceives of Balaam as standing on the top of a mountain that looked over all those countries he is going to prophesy about and used this language:<\/p>\n O for a sculptor’s hand,<\/p>\n That thou might’st take thy stand<\/p>\n Thy wild hair floating in the eastern breeze,<\/p>\n Thy tranc’d yet open gaze<\/p>\n Fix’d on the desert haze,<\/p>\n As one who deep in heaven some airy pageant aeea.<\/p>\n In outline dim and vast<\/p>\n Their fearful shadows cast<\/p>\n The giant forms of empires on their way<\/p>\n To ruin: one by one<\/p>\n They tower and they are gone,<\/p>\n Yet in the Prophet’s soul the dreams of avarice stay.<\/p>\n That is a grand conception. If he just had the marble image of a man of that kind, before whose eyes, from his lofty mountain pedestal were sweeping the pageants of mighty empires and yet in whose eyes always stayed the dreams of avarice. The following has been sculptured on a rock:<\/p>\n No sun or star so bright<\/p>\n In all the world of light<\/p>\n That they should draw to Heaven his downward eye:<\/p>\n He hears th’ Almighty’s word,<\/p>\n He sees the Angel’s sword,<\/p>\n Yet low upon the earth his heart and treasure lie.<\/p>\n That comes nearer giving a true picture of Balaam. That shows you a man so earth bound in his heart’s desire, looking at low things and grovelling that no sun or star could lift his eye toward heaven. Not even God Almighty’s word could make him look up, without coercion of the human will.<\/p>\n Now, you are to understand that the first two prophecies of Balaam came to him when he was trying to work divinations on God. In those two he obeys as mechanically as a hypnotized person obeys the will of the hypnotist. He simply speaks under the coercive power of God. In these first two prophecies God tells him what to say, as if a mightier hand than his had dipped the pen in ink and moved his hand to write those lines.<\/p>\n At the end of the second one when he saw no divination could possibly avail against those people, the other prophecies came from the fact that the Spirit of the Lord comes on him just like the Spirit came on Saul, the king of Israel, and he prophesied as a really inspired man. In the first prophecy he shows, first, a people that God has blessed and will not curse; second, he is made to say, “Let me die the death of the righteous and let my, last end at death and judgment be like his.” That shows God’s revelation to that people. The second prophecy shows why that is so: “God is not a man that he should repent.” “It is not worth while to work any divination. He has marked out the future of this nation.” Second, why is it that he will not regard iniquity in Jacob? For the purpose he has in view he will not impute their trespasses to them. The prophecy stops with this thought, that when you look at what this people have done and will do, you are not to say, “What Moses did, nor Joshua did, nor David,” but you are to say, “What God hath wrought!”<\/p>\n The first time I ever heard Dr. Burleson address young preachers, and I was not even a Christian myself, he took that for his text. He commenced by saying, “That is a great theme for a preacher. Evidently these Jews had not accomplished all those things. They were continually rebelling and wanting to go back, and yet you see them come out of Egypt, cross the Sea, come to Sinai, organized, fed, clothed, the sun kept off by day and darkness by night, marvellous victories accomplished and you are to say, ‘What God hath wrought!’ “<\/p>\n When the spiritual power comes on him he begins to look beyond anything he has ever done yet, to messianic days. There are few prophecies in the Bible more far-reaching than this last prophecy of Balaam. When he says of the Messiah, “I shall see him but not now,” it is a long way off. “My case is gone, but verily a star” the symbol of the star and sceptre carried out the thought of the power of the Messiah. So much did that prophecy impress the world that those Wise Men who came right from Balaam’s country when Jesus was born, remember this prophecy: “We have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him.”<\/p>\n He then looks all around and there are the nations before him from that mountain top, and he prophesies about Moab and Amalek and passes on beyond, approaching even to look to nations yet unborn. He looks to the Grecian Empire arising far away in the future, further than anybody but Daniel. He sees the ships of the Grecians coming and the destruction of Asshur and the destruction of Eber, his own people. Then we come to the antitypical references later.<\/p>\n If you want a comparison of this man, take Simon Magus who wanted to purchase the power of the Holy Spirit so as to make money. That is even better than Judas, though Judas comes in. Judas had knowledge, was inspired, worked miracles, and yet Judas never saw the true kingdom of God in the spirit of holiness, and because he could not bring about the kingdom of which he would be treasurer for fifteen dollars he sold the Lord Jesus Christ. Those are the principal thoughts I wanted to add.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n QUESTIONS<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n 1. Who was Balaam?<\/p>\n \n 2. How did he obtain his knowledge of God?<\/p>\n \n 3. What was the sin of Balaam?<\/p>\n \n 4. What was the climax of his sin?<\/p>\n \n 5. What five sermons on Balaam are referred to? Give the line of thought in each.<\/p>\n \n 6. Give Keble’s conception of Balaam.<\/p>\n \n 7. What was the testimony sculptured on a rock?<\/p>\n \n 8. Now give your own estimate of the character of Balaam.<\/p>\n \n 9. How do you account for the first two prophecies?<\/p>\n \n 10. How do you account for the other two?<\/p>\n \n 11. In the first prophecy what does he show, what is he made to say and what does that show?<\/p>\n \n 12. Give a brief analysis of the second prophecy.<\/p>\n \n 13. Of what does the third prophecy consist?<\/p>\n \n 14. Give the items of the fourth prophecy.<\/p>\n \n 15. How did his messianic prophecy impress the world?<\/p>\n \n 16. When was this prophecy concerning Amalek fulfilled? Ana. In the days of Saul. (1Sa 15<\/span> ).<\/p>\n \n 17. Who was Asshur and what was his relation to the Kenites?<\/p>\n \n 18. What reference here to the Grecians?<\/p>\n \n 19. Who was Eber?<\/p>\n \n 20. With what two New Testament characters may we compare?<\/p>\n \n these. Compare Num 25:2. <\/p>\n counsel = word, or doctrine (Rev 2:14). <\/p>\n trespass = Hebrew. ma’al. Compare App-44. <\/p>\n these caused: Num 24:14, Num 25:1-3, Pro 23:27, Ecc 7:26, 2Pe 2:15, Rev 2:14 <\/p>\n in the matter: Num 25:18, Deu 4:3, Jos 22:17 <\/p>\n and there: Num 25:9 <\/p>\n Reciprocal: Num 31:9 – General Psa 106:28 – joined Pro 7:13 – she Pro 28:10 – causeth Mic 6:5 – Balak Jam 3:6 – a world<\/p>\n Num 31:16. Through the counsel of Balaam Since the Moabites and their associates were taught by Balaam to acknowledge Jehovah to be a very powerful deity, even superior to the gods of other nations, (Num 23:19; Num 24:16,) is it not strange that they should have been induced, by Balaams persuasion, rather to entice the Israelites to their idolatry, than with them to embrace the worship of the true God? But the case appears to be that those idolaters considered the God of the Hebrews, not as the supreme God of the universe, but as a mere local deity, who might indeed be superior to other gods, but still was but the tutelary god of the Jews. Now with respect to those tutelary deities, their opinion was, that they required a certain form and manner of worship from their own people, which neglected, they incurred their grievous displeasure. Thus, as the Moabites and their confederates were under a persuasion that they could bring anger upon Israel from Jehovah, by seducing them from his instituted worship, so they might think themselves no less liable to the resentment of Chemosh, Peor, or some other of their own gods, had they adopted the Jewish modes and object of worship, and abandoned their own.<\/p>\n 31:16 Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD {f} in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the LORD.<\/p>\n (f) For worshipping of Peor.<\/p>\n Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the LORD. 16. The wording of this verse is obscure in the Heb., but the R.V. gives the general sense. The rendering ‘to … Continue reading “Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Numbers 31:16”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4689\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
<\/strong><\/p>\nFuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"